The telecommunication environment is in full evolution and has changed considerably this recent years. The principal reason has been the spectacular progress realized in the communication technology:
the maturing of fiber optical transmission. High speed rates can now be sustained with very low bit error rates.
the universal use of digital technologies within private and public telecommunications networks.
In relation with these new emerging technologies, the offer of the telecommunication companies, public or private, are evolving:
The emergence of high speed transmissions entails an explosion in the high bandwidth connectivity.
the increase of the communication capacity generates more attractive tariffs.
A higher flexibility is offered to the users to manage their growth through a wide range of connectivity options, an efficient bandwidth management and the support of new media.
Once sampled and digitally encoded, voice, video and image derived data can be merged with pure data for a common and transparent transport.
Abundant, cheap communications means that many potential applications that where not possible before because of cost are now becoming attractive. In this environment, three generic requirements are expressed by the users:
Doing old applications better,
Optimizing communication networks,
Doing new applications.